"General Heth, that is why we have orders" --difficulty sending courier messages

[ColMcBroom]

This thread is about difficulties composing orders to subordinates, and some other oddities that may (or may not) have been brought about by the latest patch, and Brandy Station. This may be of interest to users who don't go all the way and fight the war from saddle level, but would still like to be able to easily and quickly send out multiple orders at once to subordinates.

Recapping for readers new to this thread, the trouble was:

a.) selecting an officer or unit no longer selected him in the courier message composition list. Thus I started having to go through a long, un-alphabetized "phone book" to find the name of the guy I've already clicked on. In army-scale battles, this gets tedious, and many things may be happening while you're looking for Col. Roger Kaputinck, brigadier Gen. William M. Gaines, etc.

b.) Game started crashing, every time, about 3 minutes into the game. Previous to installing Brandy Station and patch 1.6.1, I could easily stage army-scale battles, with only a little slowdown in frame rate once the armies came into contact. This slowdown would only last a short time, then return to normal frame rate. System has no trouble running much more lavish but far less interesting games (Medal of Honor, Napoleon Total War, etc.)
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Attempted solutions:

Tried installing my copy of 150th Anniversary, but it doesn't support single player user scenarios, apparently--didn't see it in the menus. I'll put that on another machine and experiment with it later.

Uninstalled everything through Control Panel (possibly that was a mistake), reinstalled everything except Brandy Station and patch 1.6.1, the installation of which was coincident with the trouble starting.

Turned off all mods, ran basic game; but I still have to sort through every man in the army to find the name of the man I've already selected, and who is close enough for me to trip over his beard. I'll try turning on various combinations to see if I can get back to where I was a month ago before installing Brandy Station.

The reason it's important to me to be able to dash off a courier message is, if I'm impersonating a general, I want subordinates that are able to carry out halfway complicated orders. I want to trust them to tie their own shoes, start using different ammunition if they're out of solid shot and the rebels are STILL THERE IN FRONT OF THEM, and get their caissons filled when they're plumb out.

Actually, I haven't yet figured out how to say:
"Unlimber battery,
artillery to fire at will,
use up all types of ammunition you have,
don't just stand there like a drunken stork in front of the rebs if you have a caisson full of shrapnel right there but Simon didn't say shoot shrapnel,
then resupply when you're empty."

The AI runs infantry fairly well. But having to help each battery wipe their bottoms themselves reminds me of the early days of Civilization/Warcraft-type games, where you had to lead the peasants by the hand to the next berry bush or grove of timber. Why be the king if you can't give a few orders, then retire to your pleasure dome and play checkers with your harem?

(that IS what they do with harems, right?)

I can't "general" very well if my subordinates act as dumb as bricks. Has anyone else tried to wangle this problem?

Thanks for readin', and my compliments as always to the programmers, artists, and modders who have made this game well worth spending time on.

Your most obd't sv't,
Col. McBroom

[Marching Thru Georgia]

I'm not sure what is causing your crashes. Are you playing the game with no mods when this happens? A number of GCM MP players running Win8 have that problem. I don't know if it extends to SP.

The 'auto selection' of the selected officer in the courier list was removed from version 1.61.

Artillery will automatically switch ammo when it runs out of a certain type. However, it will only fire canister if the enemy is within 200 yd. Once the canister runs out, the gun will withdraw. This has been the case since version 1.0.

[ColMcBroom]

Thanks for the reply, M.T.G.

Was able to work around the crashes by dropping to lowest resolution everything and working up from there. So long as I can get it to work, I have no real need to figure out why it broke and why it works.

Hmm, my artillery must be not switching ammo because I TC them so they won't charge the enemy by themselves as if they were tanks. Though that can be entertaining to watch.

Am I correct that there's no user scenarios possible in the 150th Anniv. Ed.? Or am I just lost in the menus (a common enough occurrence)?

[Grog]

Make sure you give your artillery stance orders such as defend at all costs. This might reduce your need to TC them.
I often forget these orders and find my art advancing

[Jack ONeill]

ColM,

If I may make a suggestion, TC the Battery Commander only, not the individual guns. This will keep them in one spot, (more or less), and still allow the Gunners to switch ammo as necessary. The Battery Commander can make that decision, but it generally the Gun commanders will do a better job.

Just my Ha'penny.

Jack B)